Shower Advice

[grandma]

We have an old house and have mains cold water supply and low pressure hot water from a tank supplied by oil heating and a solid fuel rayburn. Don't want to put electric shower in as I feel we have plenty of hot water to use up. Someone suggested a venturi shower where the cold water helps increase the supply of hot water. Anyone had any dealings with this type or have you some other suggestions please?

[Riffman]

The venturi will work, but it requires a supply of hot hot water as the cold water is what powers it. It sounds like you could just use your hot water and put a pump in to give it the required pressure, ask your local plumber.

[badger]

When I moved into this house the hot water was very low pressure so my plumber replaced the hot water cylinder with a MEGAflo by Heatrae Sadia and my shower runs off that. It's probably the best powershower I've ever had. Don't ask me how it works, all I know is it requires a certain minimum cold water mains pressure.

[Ricco]

We have an old house and have mains cold water supply and low pressure hot water from a tank supplied by oil heating and a solid fuel rayburn. Don't want to put electric shower in as I feel we have plenty of hot water to use up. Someone suggested a venturi shower where the cold water helps increase the supply of hot water. Anyone had any dealings with this type or have you some other suggestions please?

There is a company called NewTeam who I believe were developing such a shower. Worth a look.

[r.rackstraw]

Grandma
You don't say if you have tried running a shower from your system. The pressure of the hot water depends on how high the cold water header tank is above the shower. You might be able to get a low head shower that does not need a pump. My shower works fine on low pressure hot water (no pump) even though it is a single storey house with the water tank in the loft.

[Tristan]

The venturi system should work but you can also ensure that the shower you have is designed for low pressure systems. Many being supplied today are for high pressure systems.

The mega flow system does work and many countries in the world use such a system. In the UK you need to have the system checked each year by a competent person. If you don't and it explodes your insurance may not cover it.

You could get a pump or a power shower but that might mean you will need to get a larger cold water tank in the loft. The reason is the tank will feed cold water to your hot water cylinder and provide the cold water for the shower.

You can get a demand booster pump and fit it onto the hot water supply which raises the pressure about 0.5 bar. Not a power shower but should be good.

You can try raising the height of the cold water tank in the loft. For every meter you gain 0.1 bar of pressure.

Good luck.

[grandma]

Thanks for all your advice. Have taken it on board and have let grandpa know your ideas. This Orging is really handy. Wish I'd done it years ago.:D

[golach]

Granma, the Org gets to those places other webs sites cannot [lol]